Latinas' eyes opened to engineering at Chandler conference

A select group of high-school students, many from Chandler, got a lesson Wednesday in not only the benefits of going to college but also the benefits of earning a degree in science, technology, engineering and math.

The students, about 200 in all, were part of a half-day conference for Hispanic females at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

"It's really about empowerment and understanding that education brings them opportunities," said Maria Harper-Marinick, provost of the Maricopa Community College District. "Eight of every 10 jobs will require a college education in the future."

Students started the day by participating in hands-on experiments, such as extracting genetic material from strawberries and making inexpensive models of the Mars rover Curiosity.

Using paper cups, plastic straws, a sandwich bag and marshmallows, students were told to work in teams to create replica rovers that could make a soft landing.

"I think we should make it like a parachute," said Lourdes Buscani, a junior at Westwood High School in Mesa.

At the end of the experiment, they discovered another team had an even better idea: filling their sandwich bag with air to cushion their rover's landing.

That was the take-home message for many students. By piecing together their ideas, they solved problems to find an engineering solution.

Problem-solving is among the benefits of engineering, according to Gabriela Gonzalez, an electrical engineer who works for Intel Corp. in university research and academic programs. Intel was among the firms represented at the Hermanas conference. The Chandler employer lent about 50 volunteers.

"A lot of people don't know what engineers do, but it is just problem-solving. They make detergents, they make clothes, everything," Gonzalez said.

STEM jobs, such as computer-systems engineers, require a bachelor's degree or higher, according to Monthly Labor Review. STEM jobs included 97 specific occupations that comprised 6 percent of U.S. employment, or about 8 million jobs, in May 2009, according to the same journal.

Many of the students at the conference said their parents did not attend college and did not know how to get scholarships to attend.

Gonzalez referred students to scholarship and grant organizations, including the federal government's site, www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Her message to high-school students was to attend college. She urged students to work hard and get good grades in high school because they would have more access to scholarships.

"I struggled in math, but I just knew I had to get through that," she said. "I was the only Latina in a room full of guys, but I was determined to get an education and have a career.

"I didn't want to depend on anyone else, even though in my culture, it was not expected for you (women) to go to college."

Gonzalez said she benefited from speaking English and Spanish, but she said it was difficult growing up in Seattle where there are fewer Hispanics.

"The hardest thing for me was being different from everyone else," she said.

She encouraged the students to earn a degree in engineering because it opens doors.

"We get the chance to travel and live everywhere," she said.

As an Intel employee, a global company, Gonzalez has traveled to Spain and Portugal, among other countries.

Maritza Mujica, a sophomore studying chemical engineering at Arizona State University, echoes the importance of a college education.

Workers employed in STEM fields earn more than those in other jobs. On an hourly basis, workers earned from $32.26 to $42.84, according to Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. Non-STEM jobs pay from $9.30 to $18.02, according to the economics research firm.

The salary is enough for Luz Osuna, a 24-year-old industrial engineer at Intel, to commute from Glendale to Chandler every day.

She volunteered at the Hermanas conference for several years.

"I enjoy promoting STEM in under-represented groups," Osuna said. "A lot of times girls think there is only one kind of engineering, the one for boys."

Some students do not understand that biomedical engineering is a career choice, she said.

"We talk about Facebook and Twitter, but students may not realize there are engineers behind those supporting the technology," Osuna said.

Yasmin Acosta, a 16-year-old junior at Chandler High School, said it was "kind of weird" to extract genes from a mashed strawberry and realize she could engineer that saliva-like substance into a fruit.

"It doesn't even look like it would be DNA," she said. "But it's something that really interests me because I'm interested in forensic science."

After the seminar, Yamin said she was surprised by how many jobs she could have as an engineer.

"There are more options in engineering than I thought," she said.

Top areas for stem jobs

Jobs in science, technology, engineering and math are expected to increase faster than non-STEM jobs. The top areas for STEM jobs, the number of those jobs and the percentage of all jobs in 2011 were: